CARDINAL BEMBO AND HIS VILLA 



fruit trees and vines for fuel, and burning the houses 

 of the unhappy peasants. Even the Villa was not safe 

 from alarms. In his terror at the approach of these 

 savage hordes, Bembo prepared to remove his family 

 to Venice in the spring of 1528, and begged Ramusio 

 for the use of his father-in-law Navagero's house, the 

 Ambassador being in France at the time. " Would to 

 God," he exclaimed, "that these vile Germans had 

 stayed by their own stoves, instead of coming here 

 to vex us." Fortunately the Landsknechten took 

 another road, and this cloud which darkened the 

 horizon drifted away to the north. " I hear," he 

 wrote to Soranzo, " that these cursed Germans are 

 marching on Peschiera, and we shall be rid of them by 

 to-morrow. So Messer Trifone may stay quietly at 

 Ronchi, and I need not load my barge for Venice." 

 Then he adds the following characteristic message : 

 "Tell my Aunt, Madonna Cecilia, that for the last 

 four days, a most delicious nightingale has been singing 

 in my garden, filling my soul with rapture all day 

 long, and the closer I stand and watch him, the better 

 he sings. I know that if she were here, she would 

 envy me, and I hope she will come to my house the 

 more willingly, to hear this enchanting little bird." l 



The following year was saddened by the death of 

 several of Bembo's most intimate friends. Castiglione, 

 1 Lettere, ii. 183. 

 153 



